'So close, so close,' superintendent says; some opponents of increase want to be in Sioux Falls district

Sep. 25, 2013

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Ruth Craig (right) prepares ballets Tuesday at the Tea Area School District Education Center. Residents were voting on a bond that would allow the school district to build an elementary and put up school additions. / Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader

The vote

Planned projects

The Tea Area School District’s bond to raise $11 million would have paid for a range of projects: • A K-4 elementary school with two classes per grade in Sioux Falls, just south of the Family Wellness Center, with five classes per grade in the future. • An addition to the existing elementary school. • The shell of a performing arts center attached to the high school.

Voters narrowly rejected an $11 million bond for the Tea Area School District on Monday. The money would have paid for two additions to schools in Tea and financed the construction of an elementary on the north end of the district.

While 633 people voted for the bond and 472 voted against, the bond referendum failed to gain the required 60 percent approval. More than 57 percent of voters voted yes, but the tally was 30 votes short of what was needed. The measure would have had exactly 60 percent support with 663 "yes" votes.

The vote came at a crucial time for the district, which faces operational challenges and steady enrollment growth of 6 percent a year. Buildings have been reaching capacity, officials said and several “stick buildings” are being used to help manage increasing class sizes.

“It makes it hard, because the board is really going to have to sit down and decide where to go from here,” Tea Superintendent Jennifer Lowery said Monday night. “So close, so close. Great voter turnout, and very close.”

More than 1,100 people voted Tuesday, an unusually high turnout for the district.

In the last bond referendum election in 2008, 570 people voted. The last board election brought enticed 500 to vote, district business manager Kathy Cleveland said.

Almost 130 absentee ballots also were cast. Typically, Cleveland said, 10 to 12 people vote absentee in elections.

Despite the loss, Lowery said she was glad to see a high turnout.

“It is a testament that this many people are coming out to vote, and that, in and of itself, is encouraging,” she said.

The money would have been used for a large classroom addition to the elementary and to help complete the first phase of a performing arts center at the middle/high school. The extra space would help eliminate some use of the stick buildings, which don’t have running water.

Property owners within the district would have had to pay $11 more a month per $100,000 in valuation.

The most contested piece of the school district plan has been the construction of an elementary on the north end of the district, near the Sanford Family Wellness Center off Tea-Ellis Road. The school district has signed an agreement to buy the land, owned by Sanford Health.

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Lowery said as part of their agreement, they still have the option, for the next few years, to develop the land, but the terms would have to be renegotiated. She said Monday night she anticipates another bond vote attempt in the next few years because of how close the vote was Monday.

A number of residents in the Westwood Valley housing development, near where the school would be constructed and in the Tea Area School District, have opposed the district’s plan. They have argued that they live closer to Sioux Falls and shouldn’t be financially responsible for Tea’s schools.

Chad Zortman, who lives in the Westwood Valley Addition, has been a staunch opponent of the bond referendum. He said he doesn’t want higher property taxes, and he wants his son to attend schools closer to home.

Several neighbors in that development near the elementary school site, including Zortman, petitioned for a minor boundary change earlier this year, seeking to attach 68 residential lots to the Sioux Falls School District. The city’s school district said yes, but the Tea Area School Board refused to let them go.

More petitions have been filed to attach more lots to the Sioux Falls School District and will be considered at tonight’s Tea School Board meeting. Zortman’s home is a part of that petition, too.

“This is just the first step, tomorrow night is when the Tea Area School Board rule on our petition, and we do hope they see it our way, and see that we are citizens of Sioux Falls, we are not citizens of Tea,” Zortman said Monday night. “We would prefer to be a part of the Sioux Falls School district, not Tea. No disrespect to the Tea School District, but I am literally footsteps away from the Sioux Falls School District and feel that’s where we belong. Hopefully, they see it our way, if not, we’ll examine our options.”

“Had they approved our petition (earlier) we would have been unable to vote and their measure would have passed,” he added.

Lowery has said the board will continue to deny boundary change requests to protect its borders.

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Tea Area would have become the third suburban public school district to grow into the city of Sioux Falls. Brandon Valley and Harrisburg are the others.

The school district needs more room to accomodate its growing student population, said Rita Patzwald, a Tea resident who voted for the bond. She said she’s glad to see plans to grow Tea’s performing arts.

“We have a lot of kids, and someone has to pay for these projects,” she said. “Taxes are higher, gas is higher, everything is higher. Everything is included in the bond, it’s not just elementary school up north, it’s the buildings here in Tea, too.”

Brad Earll, who lives in the Westwood Valley Addition, voted no on the bond issue. He said Monday afternoon he’s sending his child to a Catholic elementary school in Sioux Falls because it’s convenient and he doesn’t want to pay extra taxes for schools his child won’t be using.

“We live in Sioux Falls; there are plenty of schools next to us,” he said.

The last bond referendum in 2008, for about $10 million, built the district’s intermediate building and added eight classrooms.